me: steam is terrible; it’s just drm with a nice bow on top
steam: steam visual novel fest starts now
me: i love steam stuffs more items on my wishlist
(for real tho itch.io and gog are much better use them - and download the actual offline installers from gog don’t use galaxy)
Yup pretty much it.
Accurate and warranted.
I still don’t understand why the company is so highly regarded. They enable underage gambling. Life must be easy for a company. You just have to be a little bit better than the others and you are regarded as a hero.
Gaben is pretty chill, ngl
I never gamed, so…
- Fuck gambling
- Fuck walled gardens
- Fuck billionaires (nobody needs that much dough)
- Fuck Valve/Steam (it’s easy for me to say)
Steam isn’t perfect and I sure as shit won’t be the one defending a corporation, and this isn’t a good excuse at ALL, but if you’ve never gamed you wouldn’t believe how much worse it is on the other side (GOG being the only exception).
Steam ils not cool. Steam is a monopoly position. This egemony need to end. We need many actors not just one.
Both things are currently true, they are a monopoly which is not good, but they are also acting nicely for the most part and not fucking people over despite their position
they are a monopoly
They are not, they’re just a really good service so people use them more than the others
Epic, GOG, Itch, etc. still exist and are widely used
Yea, the same way youtube isn’t a monopoly… Except for all practical purposes it is.
Except for all practical purposes it is.
Except it’s not, because you can go to multiple other sources
More than YouTube, even, and even YouTube isn’t a full monopoly, though it’s a lot closer than Steam is
Monopolies aren’t just "big companies’ you know
You’re right - monopolies aren’t just big companies. But a lack of monopoly is also not simply having access to alternatives. You can have all kinds of alternative services - that notion alone does not disprove the claim that Steam is a monopoly.
Honest question but why is a monopoly that takes a massive cut out of others labour cool?
They’re not a monopoly, and they provide good and valuable services to their customers. That’s for both gamers and developers. There’s a reason why EA Play, Origin, uPlay, Epic Games Store etc… fail to take off compared to Steam, and it’s not just the availability of games.
They’re also very friendly to indie developers, any dev can make and publish a game on Steam for a fairly small fee compared to what you get.
They also heavily promote and contribute to open source software and Linux in general.
But fuck them for needing to make a profit too I guess?
Just because Steam is not an evil corporation doesn’t mean we can’t criticize them too. Both statements can be true, there is no way for an individual person to ethically own a billion dollars and Steam is for the most part an example of a business treating it’s customers, workers, and suppliers with respect and dignity. Those statements are not mutually exclusive.
You forgot to mention that they get children addicted to unregulated gambling, but that would ruin the gaben wankfest you’ve got going on in your head for some reason.
In what way is Steam a monopoly?
I’m just happy to see a meme template from Half Baked.
Chappelle’s old stuff is fire
Have you ever looked at memes on weed?
The man who delivered that line is now my generation’s Walter Cronkite
Ha, right! Also, oy, I’m old
Steam may be a very successful business, but they’re still the seed crystal for a whole ecosystem of gambling that preys on addicts and children with the whole CSGO loot box thing. Take a wild guess what forms of addiction have the highest suicide rates?
Fuck Valve. Fuck all Corps. No business has ever nor can ever, genuinely give a shit about anything other than increasing profit.
No business?
I work as a software developer for a small business and they do care about us and not just profits.
Recently we were all given a pay rise and a reduction in hours as they can afford to support that.
Correct, no business. That same business will lay you off in a heartbeat if they can. Businesses do not care about you.
Also, not true in my case.
They do care and have shown on numerous occasions my supporting me when I have needed it and instilling in us that we come first and the business is secondary.
Like the owners literally do the same work as us and are far more accommodating than they have to be for us.
How else would you get a pay rise and a reduction in hours, able to work from home when having car trouble, not having a good mental health day fine take it off, etc. We also don’t have any targets or KPIs and don’t actively seek new work as our clients are loyal.
I’m gonna add that the ceo is a bilionare who owns an entire fleet of mega yacths
https://luxurylaunches.com/transport/gabe-newell-luxury-yachts.php
On the other hand, Valve wishing to seek an alternative to Microsoft’s poor decision[1] making has been a great boon to the Linux community. Valve was also there at the start of Vulkan[2]. But is “funny” that Gabe Newell started off as a Microsoft employee, in fact the one that led the team that ported Doom to Windows with Doom95 and in turn also helped launch Windows (95) as the gaming OS for decades to come.
As much as I distrust and hate corporations, Valve isn’t in it for the shareholders, you can’t buy Valve stocks and that means they at least have a bit more soul than a lot of other corporations - even though they are profit seeking.
What I don’t like about them is how they sell you a service, not an actual game. You technically buy a lifelong lease on each game, never ownership. Your shit can be gone in minutes with nothing to prove for it, except for bank statements saying Valve took your money.
Which is why I’ll always buy on GOG[3] if possible. DRM free and European.
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Does everyone just keep glossing over the ‘they enable the abuse of addicts and children” part?
I’m not saying I disagree with your other points I’m just confused.
Because it’s a weak-ass point, quite simply. Capitalism itself does that shit, not gonna knock Valve for something every game company does, if we play that game with everyone it gets exhausting
“Wont SOMEBODY think of the children?” Is literally a Simpsons meme
Every game company does not operate a gambling system that is the center for a literal whole ecosystem of predatory shady businesses. But that was a halfway decent try at a whataboutism argument /s.
Yes that quote is at the heart of a Simpsons episode. And it’s about people using moral panic crusades as a means of enacting draconian measures of control based on a fear based in falsehood. Valve demonstrably engages in the practices I mentioned so I think your point kind of falls completely on its face. I am glad to see you recognize capitalism as inherently exploitative though.
Every game company does not operate a gambling system that is the center for a literal whole ecosystem of predatory shady businesses.
Making a more specific point after the fact doesn’t change the original point.
whataboutism
So busy trying to sound smart you proved you weren’t worth engaging with
Linux is more important to them than child abuse.
😂
Sounds like a systemic issue…
*glances at capitalism" 👀
Also an entirely voluntary issue with viable quality alternatives that exists solely due to people not chosing FOSS video games to play.
Examples:
Platformer- Super Tux
FPS- Xotonix
Strategy- Beyond All Reason
Depends if the business it publicly owned.
I think valve are mostly fair to consumers. The money they make from gamers is doing some good in the linux sphere.
I thought it was pretty well known Valve is privately owned.
They make money selling off of gamers by selling games. They take advantage of and enable systemic abuse of, I’ll say it again, addicts and children. I’m not saying they aren’t also fair to their customers in most of their dealings and that they aren’t doing good things for the Linux ecosystem. But we’re also talking way more money than I bet you’re thinking. Gabe’s uber rich person kink is super-yachts. Multiple, super-yachts. You can appear and behave with decency and still contribute to the detriment of society at the same time.
I agree with this, but you have to admit that if all corps were like steam it would be a lot better.
Hey both things can be true. I feel like at this point though the only reason they haven’t stopped the whole gambling thing is because it’s basically a money faucet and in a monetary economy who’d ever turn off a money faucet? But that’s the rub, greed is inherently incentivized.
You are allowed to say Fuck on the Internet. Why are you following the self-censorship rules for Instagram and other social networks if you are making a joke about them?
Looks like it was baked into the image template they used
No excuse. Build it from scratch again. Build it better.
We can rebuild him. We have the technology
I realised that those who censor themselves on the Internet, grew up on the Internet when YouTube started demonitising profanities and thus picked up the habit.
We are getting old.
youtube was good before googol bought it, now it is crap.
Daily dose of getting old: that buyout was like 20 years ago
The buyout was less than a year into it existing
Very few actually remember pre-google youtube
I just reposted it from elsewhere, no need to read too much about it
[ removed from lemmy ]
Steam is still basically the only option AND they are actually helping Linux a lot with game compatibility. Altough, if I need games specifically on steam I’ll be buying the key from Greenmangaming (UK) or GamersGate (Sweden). If anybody has more alternatives feel free to let me know so I can add them to my list.
GOG sadly misses a majority of games atm so I just can’t replace steam with it yet.
No grey market key sellers, only legit.
The name GamersGate sounds like it didn’t any issues at all /s
Yeahhh I don’t know who thought that was a good name hahaha
Steam is still basically the only option
When cornered people finally admit that steam is a small monopoly
Steam isn’t a monopoly, there are other choices but they just suck. Epic games in terms of game availability already replaces a good 80% of my active library, itch, ubisoft, ea, etc also exist but are just so bad as well.
Steam is basically the only option… That cares about gamers and actually provides a good service.
Huge plus that they aren’t publicly traded and forced to chase profits above all. Plus their employees are far and wide the best paid in the industry, and they never do mass lay offs.
This is a somewhat naive view when you consider Gabe’s multiple super-yachts.
You are still fucked then if Steam decides to take out a game you purchased. Again the whole “you’re not buying a product but a license for the product” debacle. Other than not giving Steam any money, this doesn’t change much? Could just pirate games instead.
I never said I cared about that in the first place. But even after games are removed from Steam they still allow you to download it whenever. Its only really an issue should Gabe choose a replacement for him that isn’t as pro gamers as he is.
This community is about buying european, not complaining about having DRM.
Third party key market places are kinda iffy, and there have been numerous cases of the keys being offered on there having been bought with stolen credit cards, or otherwise generated in ways that aren’t quite above board.
I remember one interview with an indy dev in which they said they prefer people pirating, because chargebacks from stolen cards are actively costing them money.
For people who feel they need the entertainment games provide, but can’t afford current prices, I feel pirating games from conglomerates, and buying from smaller studios and indies is the most socially responsible way to do it, but I’m not your mum.
Edit: Huh, looks like greenmangaming gets their keys directly from the publishers. Didn’t know that was a thing. Guess I was a bit quick on the trigger there, should have checked first. Sorry about that.
See you already found the reason it is ok, but yeah what you are saying is completely right when talking about sites like G2A, Kinguin, etc where YOU can sell your keys as that opens the gates for illegal stuff
Hence I mentioned legit resellers (from the EU) that do support the publishers.
G2A is probably the big example of Devs prefering you pirate instead of buying.
Only use G2A if you actively wish harm on the company making the game.
Don’t use G2A even if you wish harm on the company making the game, it’s still supporting scammers and thieves, just pirate the game.
I’m quite fond of Fanatical. They are based in the UK and also sometimes sell DRM free books/audiobooks
Ohh I’ve actually been on their website sometime. Good to know they’re UK based thanks!
Update:
What’s that?
My purchase on fanatical
I don’t believe gog will ever have a full library. They require all their games to be DRM free. Until corporate gaming changes GOG won’t.
Not all their games are DRM free though, they ‘sold out’ a long time ago.
ive seen that gog is incredibly picky with what games are allowed on its platform too, which doesn’t help
iirc they refused Balatro, and initially even refused Undertale for being too low quality, before changing their minds when they saw the absolute phenomenon that game had become
(I got this from hearsay tho so don’t take it as a fact)
There ought to more indie outlets like itch.io, preferably non-American, and maybe if GOG had a similar site for just free or low cost indie games, that’d help bring upcoming indie artists in the door which eventually could make trustworthy titles worthy of their more premium store. Shame they have such odd vetting process, yet they don’t have a problem with over low quality stuff like the Postal series[1].
Thats a plus for me, and why when I buy its through gog. My steam library is large, but hasn’t grown in years.
Wait what exactly is the purpose of buying a steam key from a third party? And how is that profitable and not tos breaking?
Good question! Real resellers (so NOT g2a, etc) get their keys from publishers directly (so they pay for them). The publishers get these keys from steam for free and by buying them from a reseller steam takes 0% of the money. So by using an EU reseller more money stays here.
Keys can be cheaper when there isn’t any ongoing steam sales. Some website are shady and should be avoided but some are 100% legit. Any reseller listed on isthereanydeal is safe to use, they get their keys directly from publishers.
Costco is cool too! They have local products.
Most important of all they compensate their employees like they are actual humans.
And, they told the ignorant people to go fuck themselves in regards to stopping their DEI efforts.
Keep that DEI and I will keep shopping!
And their management bust unions like their lives depend on it.
Costco can be cool all they want once the federal government of the USA tells them to fuck over Canadians they will. It’s a very dangerous game to rely heavily on American companies in Canada right now. No matter how ethical they might be. The trade war has already begun and the USA will use any lever available when the time comes to annex.
The issue isn’t the federal government tells them to fuck over Canadians (or anyone else). It’s that they don’t tell them anything. They just make Canadian goods cost more in the US. They don’t have a choice. Most businesses would rather the cost stay the same, but we have a dumb ass president who’s fucking us all over for no good reason.
for no good reason
Well, the reason is to destabilize the west because Putin wants a new Soviet Union
It’s certainly not a good reason. But it’s not just “dumb trump pulling levers he doesn’t understand.” It’s “dumb Trump pulling the levers he’s told to. He doesn’t understand what he’s doing, but those planning the lever pulls do”
I wouldn’t have started even dual booting Linux if it wasn’t for Steam after being pleasantly surprised with my Steam Deck played most of my Steam library. It’s the primary why I intend to get AMD gpu next time around for the better driver support, but that won’t be for a few years.
Yep, if you want a reason why Valve are “less evil” than other companies, one big thing to point to is the huge investment they’ve made into the Linux ecosystem. Even though it’s in their own interests (Microsoft locking out steam would cripple their income), we can see with Epic suing Google/Apple that there are other, shittier ways that they could have attempted the same thing. The investment they’ve made into Linux, Proton, KDE etc benefit everyone and can’t be taken away on a whim.
Waiting to see what excuses people bring up to keep using steam
Liking Linux is apparently their reason to support one of the biggest child gambling websities.
I’m not using it since I’m not gaming, but I absolutely love how much they’re doing for Linux. With Proton they broke windows’ pseudo-monopoly on gaming and are now working on making Linux gaming mainstream with the steam deck.
Do I need any other excuse than liking it?
I reduce US stuff and buy more local, but I’m not dealing in absolutes here. Maybe some day I’ll stop using steam but I’m going one step at a time.
What are some good alternatives to steam? Because as it stands currently i’ve had technical difficulties with gog (should probably try and see if they are still present) and don’t know about any other non-american site which would fill that role
You don’t really need a third party software launcher to play games to begin with
No, you need a third party torrenting site and a third party to crack the game and a third party torrent client… that’s somehow much better… No matter how you slice it, you still need at least one middle man between you and games.
I’m pirating. If a game I want isn’t available on fitgirl repacks, I don’t want it anymore. Before streaming services and always online garbage became a thing I’d buy physical releases, but the more intrusive DRM became, the less I got interested in modern game delivery services.
